The Rover
Aphra Behn
today
Aphra Behn
Behn and the Critics
The Masquerade
Discussion questions
Aphra Behn
1640 — 1689
Biographical details unclear
Prolific writer in many genres
Difficult life; worked hard and
died in poverty
Behn and the Critics
“The Incomparable Astrea” or “Lewd Harlot”?
“Sappho famous for her gout and guilt,”
“debauch’d and vile”
[Sappho=Behn]Robert Gould,
“The Playhouse,” Collected Poems, 1689
The stage how loosely does Astrea tread,
Who fairly puts all characters to
bed!Alexander Pope, “The First Epistle of the Second
Book of Horace Imitated,” 1737
Doth that lewd Harlot, that Poetick Quean,Fam’d
through White Fryars, you know who I mean,Mend
for reproof, others set up in spight,To flux, takes
glisters, vomits, purge and write,Long with a sciatica
she’s beside lame,Her limbs distortur’d, Nerves
shrunk up with pain,And therefore I’ll all sharp
reflections shun,Poverty, Poetry, Pox, are plagues
enough for one.
Anonymous Lampoon, 1687[possibly by Robert Gould]
Once, to your Shame, your Parts to all were shown, But now, (tho’ a more Public Woman grown,)
You gain more Reputation in
the Town;
Grow Public, to your Honour, not your Shame,
As more Men now you please, gain much more Fame;Who, for your
Parts, got much more Praise before,
But, as your Pains, in bringing forth, were more;
But now, more credit you from all Men
gain,
As you bring forth, in Public, with less Pain,
Your easiest Off-springs of your Wanton Brain...William Wycherley,
“To the Sappho of the Age. Suppos’d to Ly-In of a Love-Distemper, or a Play,” Miscellany Poems, 1704
...when their verse did fail To get ’em Brandy, Bread
and Chease and Ale, Their wants by Prostitution
were supply’d, Shew but a Tester, you might up and
ride: For punk* and Poetess agree so pat
[punk=prostitute] You cannot well be This,
and not be That.Robert Gould, “The Poetess, A
Satyr,” The Works of Mr. Robert Gould, 1709
All women together ought to let flowers fall upon
the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most
scandalously but rather appropriately in
Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned
them the right to speak their minds. It is she—
shady and amorous as she was—who makes it
not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight:
Earn five hundred a year by your wits.
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, 1928
Masquerade
• European tradition of
Carnival: festivals of
liberating anonymity
when the sexes, and
social classes, mixed
with relative freedom
• Venetian Carnival the
most famous
http://www.ellencline.com/theatre.html
17th couple in carnival
masks
F.Bertelli: "Magnifico e Cortigiana" - (1642)
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/magnifico.html
Moretta (mask worn
by women, secured
with a button held
between the teeth)
G.Grevembroch: "Mascara" - (18th century)
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/moretta.html
Group of
masked men
and women,
late 18thc
G.DePian: highlights from C.Goldoni's play "Le Donne Gelose" - (1791)
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/games.html
Contemporary
photos of masked
women at the
Venetian Carnival
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html
http://www.aurumxxl.com/carnival_2.htm
Casanova (2005)
For Discussion
Based on what we have read so far, how did disguises
/ masks / masquerades function in Restoration
theatre?
How might gender have an impact on these functions?
....
the Rake, from a female perspective (vs.
perhaps Horner as an example of a “male
perspective”?)
the sexual double standard
the main three women: their characters
and their fates
http://www.art-connection.de/masken/page/english/venezian.carnival.2.html